Let me preface this blog by saying that if you expected me to go on some sort of Jim Sterling-inspired rant cussing up a storm and condoning everyone to commit piracy, I'm sorry. You'll not find that here. Also, I in no way am defending Sony for their decision, because it ultimately sucks. The point of this blog is an attempt to get extremely irate people on the internet out of the lofty clouds of unreasonable expectations and back down to the terrafirma of reality. Let's begin.
By now, everyone should know that Sony will be closing three digital store fronts: PS3 and PSP stores on July 2nd, and Vita on August 27th. This gives gamers roughly three to four months to shop for any last minute games. And while this really sucks, we do have to remember that these stores are at least a decade old, with the exception of the Vita being several months shy of a decade. Sadly, this is the ugly, bitter truth of digital games. They simply can't exist forever.
This should come to no surprise to any of us. Every time we hit that "Purchase" button, we give our money to companies knowing that some day, they'll no longer be available. This is nothing new. Nintendo has shut down DS and Wii eShops and even 3DS and Wii U eShops in some regions. I've lost access entirely to the TMNT and X-Men arcade games on my 360 and PS3 and never got around to buying the Simpsons arcade game before Konami delisted them all. Speaking of Konami, the removal of the prototype Silent Hills demo P.T. caused an uproar and we saw PS4s with the demo being sold on eBay in upwards of 1000 dollars.
Another crowning example of the downside of digital games is obviously:
Originally released on Xbox 360 and PS3, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was adored by gamers the world over. It featured a terrific retro visual style and played very similar to classic beat 'em ups like River City Ransom. Then suddenly at the end of 2014, the game was delisted from XBL and PSN most likely due to publisher Ubisoft letting the license expire. Ever since then, gamers have been crying out for someone to put the game back up and nearly seven years later, Ubisoft finally did this past January. Also, all eyes were on limit run game maker Limited Run Games to press physical copies so that the game would have some permanence and thankfully, they did. I bought the game on the PS5 digitally to play with a friend that night, but I also double dipped and bought a physical copy for the Switch. Even with all the kerfuffle, Scott Pilgrim will not exist forever on these store fronts.
Now, just because this is nothing new doesn't mean it doesn't suck entirely, but let's be rational here. Do we honestly expect companies like Sony, MS and Nintendo to give us lifetime guarantees that the games we bought digitally will be unavailable? Do you want them to keep servers running for 10 more years? 20? 30? To keep games alive that you'll probably never play again? I understand that companies bleed money left and right and can still run marathons, but the point of any business is to keep making money and if games aren't selling on their servers anymore, it's not really ideal to keep them up and running, so some hemorrhaging has to be stemmed. They're also under no obligation to keep the games alive. They only need to sell them. If you're worried about losing your digital games, there's a wealth of options out there to back them up.
But again, think about it. Do you expect Best Buy or Game Stop or Wal-Mart or Amazon to guarantee your game's availability for the rest of your life? That's dependent on the publisher. If they feel their games aren't selling anymore that they would lose money pressing more copies, they're going to stop making the games, and retailers are under no obligation to make sure their games will always be around. We have secondhand markets for that. Now, that's were the real issue lies.
There are no secondhand markets for digital-only games. The PlayStation stores closing that are selling games like Jak and Daxter, Last of Us, Uncharted, God of War, etc., shouldn't cause concern for anyone because they can always find those copies floating around physically. But digital-only games don't have that luxury, so I get why people are upset over the closing of these stores. Don't stay upset, though, because this is the future you chose for those games. You voted with your wallet that you'd rather buy a game digitally versus physically, so more and more developers and publishers began to move to digital-only.
If you want to pirate these games because you're pissed off at Sony, I'd say you're rationalizing and that doesn't place you on any higher moral ground. If you're upset that these games are being removed, then buy them. They've been around long enough. They've had enough time to sell. If you never got around to getting Generic Button-Pressing Retro Fest and your only recourse is to pirate, well, that is the only time I'll defend piracy. I do believe that games should be preserved. I just don't believe it's the companies' responsibility. Backup, archive, and share. This happens all the time in other mediums. Movies get lost to time, someone will restore it. A lost album is found, and someone releases it online. A box of comic books from a dead artist is bought at an estate sale and then given to a museum. The originators of these mediums can't keep their works alive forever. They need help from people either capable or willing to do so.
And we need to come up with a better way than piracy. We need more companies like Limited Run and iam8bit to keep pressing digital-only games so they can be found physically when they're delisted. We should actually call on them to take up archival duties as well, preserve them and work with publishers to obtain licenses to continue to sell themselves should the publishers chose not to do so. Personally, I feel the best option would be to have a physical on demand company who can press physical copies for any system at any time. Of course, it will be pricier, but at least the games will continue to exist.
I don't like the thought of some people losing out on the ability to buy games for any reason. Hell, we just saw Super Mario 3D All-Stars delisted from the eShop this week, and we're starting to see physical copies get marked up. I even bough a second copy just in case they go way up in value, although I don't think it's going to be for a while. But what I don't want to see is gamers continuously pissed off and try to justify piracy to stick it to Sony when the games are still up on their stores. Sony didn't just decide to do this over night. They gave people plenty of time, just as Nintendo gave people plenty of time to get 3D All-Stars. Again, if you really want these games, buy them before they're gone. You'll at least be supporting the developers this way. Once they're gone, then do whatever the hell you want, but DON'T justify piracy when the games are still up.
"But they're multi-billion dollar companies!" You know what? I honestly hate that defense. People try to conflate rich people with needing to be robbed from, like they're trying to be modern day Robin Hoods, only I know that most people who pirate have no intention of redistributing the wealth. I'm not rich myself, but I can afford to buy a PS5 every month. Just because I can, does that mean it's OK for people who can't afford one to rob mine every month? No. Again, don't rationalize when it comes to theft. Anyway, I digress. I don't want to turn this into an anti-piracy blog anymore than it needs to be.
This entire situation just sucks. Digital-only games are a great convenience, but they come with several caveats, which we're again seeing happening with the closure of Sony stores. The EULAs that we never read are written in such a way that it pretty much guarantees they can do whatever they want with their games, because they technically aren't YOUR games. It's only a license to use them, and licenses can be ended at their discretion for any reason. This is why every single gamer needs to advocate buying physical copies and archiving games that aren't physical. We have to commit ourselves and it needs to be a concerted effort, or a digital-only future will loom ever closer. I just downloaded Oddworld: Soulstorm yesterday because it was free on PSN+ and I wanted to play it right away, but I also just preordered a physical copy which releases July 6th. I want Lorne Lanning and Sony to see that people are still interested in physical copies and even if games release on digital first (Kena, I'm looking at you), I want Sony to know there are people willing to wait BECAUSE I don't want see what's happening now happen 15 years later with the PS5 store.
And it really sucks for the little guys who don't have money to press their own copies so going digital is their only recourse. But Sony isn't the only digital store front. Pitch your game to Nintendo and MS. You can always put it on Steam or GOG, or even the Epic store who's all about giving devs bigger cuts. And again, work with companies like Limited Run Games and see if you can get some physical copies out. There's always options. But yeah, we're always going to deal with these caveats if we continue to buy digitally, and at some point we need to hold ourselves accountable as well for ushering in a digital-only future.
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